My betta just died :( He had a fungal infection. I treated it the day I noticed it but when I woke up this morning to give him his medicine he was dead. Sooo lame.

Anyway, I'm about to start over. I want to do everything perfectly, cycling the tank beforehand etc etc. So I have a few questions: would it be best to throw away the gravel in his tank or is there a way to sanitize it really well? Also, any ideas on how to sanitize a marimo moss ball? There are two in the tank and I really like them, I'd rather not throw them out but I want to make sure all of the fungus is gone so I don't infect the new guy. Also, I'm thinking of putting salt in the tank to prevent fungal infections in the future. Is salt detrimental to moss balls? I know it's bad for live plants but what about marimo? They are actually colonies of green algae, if that helps...Also, should I keep the moss ball and the silk plants in the tank while I'm cycling it or should I take them out?

My betta just died :( He had a fungal infection. I treated it the day I noticed it but when I woke up this morning to give him his medicine he was dead. Sooo lame.

Anyway, I'm about to start over. I want to do everything perfectly, cycling the tank beforehand etc etc. So I have a few questions: would it be best to throw away the gravel in his tank or is there a way to sanitize it really well? Also, any ideas on how to sanitize a marimo moss ball? There are two in the tank and I really like them, I'd rather not throw them out but I want to make sure all of the fungus is gone so I don't infect the new guy. Also, I'm thinking of putting salt in the tank to prevent fungal infections in the future. Is salt detrimental to moss balls? I know it's bad for live plants but what about marimo? They are actually colonies of green algae, if that helps...Also, should I keep the moss ball and the silk plants in the tank while I'm cycling it or should I take them out?

For the gravel you can just soak it in boiling hot water, this would kill all the germs etc as for the marimo balls, you could just wash/soak them in warm water too but not too hot, as this would likely kill them lol.

IMO, Salt used for a long period of time can do more harm to the fish than good in which case I use it when need be and in a quarantine tank :)

Okay. That's what I was thinking about the salt. Many people have differing opinions on it but it does seem counterintuitive to keep a freshwater fish in salt all the time. Do you know of another way to prevent fungal infections? I kept his tank pretty clean, it was filtered and heated and I did water changes once a week using tap water with the chlorine filtered out. Maybe I didn't change the water often enough...?

For that size tank once/twice weekly is fine IMO, I don't do mine much more than that :) Just keep up with the water changes, vacuum the gravel regularly and also maintain your filter media, by rinsing it in a bucket of old tank water this should be enough to prevent future betta fatalities and/or infections :)

Sorry to hear about your betta too. It broke my heart when I lost my halfmoon, all because of a darn rock but you live and learn from your mistakes :)